Germany’s culture minister on Friday called on Turkey to release Alican Uludağ, a journalist working for German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, after an İstanbul court ordered him jailed on charges of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“Journalistic work is not a criminal offense,” Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer said in a statement, calling the case “baseless” and demanding Uludağ’s immediate release.
Weimer said Deutsche Welle and its staff must be able to work freely and report independently in Turkey.
German government spokesman Sebastian Hille said Berlin was “deeply concerned” and stressed that journalists should be able to do their work without fear of reprisal.
Hille said press freedom in Turkey has been an international concern for years.
Turkey has long attracted criticism from rights groups and European institutions over criminal cases against journalists and the use of laws that make it a crime to insult the president.
© Agence France-Presse